They have been branded the ticking time bomb of Europe, morale is at a low –
and they have lost Gerard Depardieu. Now the French have had enough.

A senior politician on Thursday issued a desperate plea for an end to "French bashing" around the world – insisting France is "blessed by the gods" and one of the best places to live on Earth.

Corinne Lepage, a MEP and former French presidential candidate, demanded that other countries, as well as fellow countrymen, stop treating her nation like a "the scum of the earth" and a planetary "laughing stock".

Such insults, she claimed, were a major stumbling block to economic recovery for the already notoriously demoralised and pessimistic French.

Francois Hollande's Socialist government has come under constant attack in recent weeks over its plans for a 75 per cent rate of tax on millionaire earners, sending a string of celebrities and top businessmen running for fiscal cover abroad.

The actor Gerard Depardieu has moved to Belgium and taken Russian nationality; his Asterix and Obelix co-star Christan Clavier has moved to London, soon to be joined by composer Jean-Michel Jarre and French optician shop tycoon Alain Afflelou, while France's richest man Bernard Arnault has filed a request to become Belgian.

In an editorial with the French version of the Huffington Post, Mrs Lepage said: "How can a country blessed by the gods with its culture, food and landscapes, that is the world's most popular tourist destination and seen by many as an Eldorado come in the space of a few weeks to be treated like a bogeyman?

Today, she added, France was repeatedly branded a place "where investors are not welcome" and as one Right-wing former minister put it, "the laughing stock of the world".

In truth, more British and Belgian people had taken French nationality since 2010 than the reverse, Ms Lepage said.

The 61-year-old former environment minister added: "If financially, a couple or pensioners or an unmarried single person has a higher standard of living in Britain due to its tax system, the same can certainly not be said for a couple of white collar workers with two children.

"In France, free education and the low cost of living easily compensate for higher taxes," she said. "And if you fall ill or have an accident, you're much better off being French than either British or American.

"So let's stop with what has gone from simple criticism to outright French bashing from morning till night, making out that we are the scum of the earth."

She added that Depardieu was perfectly welcome to move to Russia "and make a 'man-sandwich' with Vladimir Putin".

"Yes, (France has) problems with money, with business and with success.

"But that's no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater and treat us like we are doomed to catastrophe.

"The poor Frenchman can no longer stand this avalanche of self-hatred.

"Each one of us should reject this criticism to give us back the joy and pride we have in being French."

Pierre Moscovici, France's economy minister, also hit out in November at "Le French bashing" after media warnings that his government's policies were sending the country's highest earners fleeing abroad.

Taking particular umbrage to the Economist describing France as "the time bomb at the heart of Europe," he told business leaders in Paris: "I lament attacks on the government's economic policies that are in vogue in France and abroad. All this French-bashing is terrible."

The head of France's bosses' union, MEDEF, warned in October that France's left-wing economic policies risked turning it into the "poor man of Europe".

Prime Minister David Cameron infuriated the French in June by pledging to "roll out the red carpet" to wealthy French wishing to escape punitive Gallic tax hikes. President Hollande put them down to British "humour".